Don’t Get Got:
An Anti-Scammer Anthem

Music Video

Listen to the complete song available on…

Spotify
Amazon Music
Apple Music
Soundcloud

Chapter 1 - The 70s

I grew up in the Walt Whitman housing projects in Fort Greene Brooklyn, during the era of “blaxploitation” flicks. That term is considered derogatory, but its reference immediately conveys a universal understanding among Black folks. It transports many of us who grew up during this era to a time when we played outside until the lights came on. When we pretended to wear high heels using crushed soda or beer cans. And when we we’d lie to our friends about going to see Dolomite and Foxy Brown in the movie theaters knowing good and well our parents would be nuts to take 6 or 7 years olds to what would have been considered R rated movies. The soundtracks to most of these flicks were fire though and when I decided to work on this project, I wanted the first remix to take me back to the style of music from my early childhood days. Awesome fond memories…

I can’t remember what happened next. Did I reach out to Simon Okelo first? Or did he approach me? Doesn’t matter now. Simon is the Founder of One Vibe Africa based in Kenya. Through creative cultural and innovative programs and events, One Vibe Africa promotes social welfare, and economic empowerment thereby lessening neighborhood tensions, preventing community deterioration, and preventing juvenile delinquency. I was so pleased to hear about their program and how a group of young people from Kenya would be working on the remix of my song.

Simon and his team understood my vision to educate folks about scamming and the results couldn’t have made me happier! What’s even more awesome is that we did everything via email, Zoom and Dropbox. It was seamless. They listened to my original a cappella rendition and came up with an amazing track that immediately took me back to my childhood. When I heard the first cut, I couldn’t stop laughing…yes laughing. I couldn’t believe I was actually singing on a track with a spirit and cannabis laced narration I concocted (more like downloaded). That just made me giddy AF! So I laughed.

 

The Road Thus Far…

  • The Backstory.

    What does “getting got” mean?

    In January of 2022, I started getting a flood of DMs via Instagram about copycats of my account. I thanked everyone who reached out and went about my business. I didn’t bother putting in a formal complaint with IG until some of the folks in my DMs said that they actually paid the scammers because they really thought it was me. I had mixed emotions about this because on one hand, I was pissed at these scammers (yes more than one) for being so predatory and on the other hand I was incredulous at the naïveté of the community. I literally said to myself “how the EFF did they let themselves get got like that?” And then the spirit of some gospel loving ancestor creeped in…

  • DON'T GET GOT COVER

    The Inspiration.

    Even though my dad was agnostic in his religious beliefs, he still loved him some Mahalia Jackson. So every time I improvise on a slow and easy gospel song, I try to mimic her style (note the word “try”). As most of my peeps know, I’m really a hook gworl. I can only seem to come up with repetitive beats and phrasing like Don’t Get Got just said over and over again but to an a cappella spiritual vibe. It’s always been a challenge for me to share my singing voice with people outside of my groups but I was being called to sing something with the hopes that anyone hearing the song would at least think twice before making uninformed decisions. Then I started thinking…” what if I could continue to alert people about scamming via this thing called Web 3.0.

  • The NFT.

    An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token. What does that mean? I have some resources listed below. Have fun doing your own research. That’s how I’m being taught. I’m still a student but I knew I wanted to transform this song into something bigger and better; an educational platform. And I wanted to do it with variations on the original song theme all made into music videos that would then turn into their own independent NFT Projects. Web 3.0 hits different. It requires a different way of looking at community (almost along the lines of cooperative economics). Cross that with decentralization as its core fundamental concept. It allows for so much creativity and inspiration to build whatever you want and under the auspices of…not one single entity, but instead the community at large.

The Original

 

Resources - These are sources I like. Remember…Do You OWN Research and Discern…Discern…Discern

Where can I start to learn about crypto?

Thank you to…

Athena! For putting me on to the higher institution of Web 3.0 knowledge known as Clubhouse.
French! For introducing me to the metaverse.
Iya Koko! For the love of afro-futurism.
K. Scott Cosme for the amazing cover art.
Darnell for the help with getting my music on the streaming platforms.